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It is thought he ran an empire smuggling thousands of migrants into Europe by regular journeys across the Med.

He is charged with being the organiser of a transnational criminal conspiracy aimed at smuggling people from Africa to Italy, and on to northern Europe and the UK.

Other charges include the smuggling of migrants relating to numerous arrivals of boats in Sicily, with aggravating circumstances of the number of smuggled people, inhuman treatment and risk to the life of migrants.

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Europe is struggling to deal with the biggest migrant crisis since the 1940s

Medhanie has absolute disregard for human life

Tom Dowall

Tom Dowdall, NCA deputy director, said: "Medhanie is a prolific people-smuggler and has absolute disregard for human life.

"Although he was operating thousands of miles away, his criminal activity was impacting the UK.

"Medhanie no doubt thought he was beyond the reach of European justice but we were able to support the Italians by tracking him down to Sudan."

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The operation to arrest the 35-year-old involved GCHQ and NCA officials

Migrant Crisis: Mass exodus from the migrant camp continues

Tue, October 25, 2016

Hundreds of migrants are continuing to arrive in Europe as they flee the scenes of chaos and brutality of the Islamic State in the Middle East.